Two more large companies have announced employee bonuses in the wake of Trump's tax cuts: Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX).
Disney is giving over 125,000 full-time and part-time non-executive employees a one-time cash bonus of $1,000. It is also investing $50 million in an educational program for employees, which will help them pay tuition for degree or vocational programs that will advance their careers. In making the announcement, Bob Iger explained, "I have always believed that education is the key to opportunity; it opens doors and creates new possibilities. Matched with the $1,000 cash bonus, these initiatives will have both an immediate and long-term impact."
This generally positive news was not without controversy, however. On Tuesday a union leader accused Disney of withholding the bonuses from certain workers to use as leverage in pay negotiations. For its part, Disney said it would determine distribution plans for union employees with the approval of union representatives, as per federal law.
The expanded benefits for workers also come after Disney reported a somewhat disappointing fourth quarter, with net income down 1% from the same time a year ago. Iger, who is compensated partly based on his performance, saw his own pay drop by 17%. Disney also recently spent $52.4 billion acquiring 21st Century Fox. Disney has not specified how much it expects to save under the tax reform.
Starbucks, already known for offering better pay and benefits to workers than its competitors in the mass-market restaurant and retail industry, will offer a combination of one-time grants, pay raises, and company stock. The company will also offer increased benefits: as of July 1, 2018, all Starbucks employees will accrue paid sick leave, and cafe workers will now have up to six weeks of paid parental leave to spend with a new child. Starbucks has tailored these offerings to address complaints from baristas that the company has favored corporate employees at the expense of in-store employees.
Neither company has explicitly stated how much money it will save from the Trump tax cuts. But Credit Suisse analyst Jason West estimated that Starbucks might save about $425 million in annual tax savings.
In offering these benefits, Disney and Starbucks are joining several other major U.S. companies, including Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), Walmart (NYSE: WMT), PNC (NYSE: PNC), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC).
Still, the tax plan is not uniformly good for employees. Several companies, including Walmart, have announced layoffs even as they boosted worker pay and benefits. Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB), which recently reported an operating profit of $3.3 billion in 2017, announced that it will restructure its business in the wake of tax reform. As part of this restructuring, the company will cut nearly 13% of its workforce, or 5,500 job.